The invention relates to an adjustable plier wrench hand tool. More particularly, the invention relates to a combination vise grip plier and adjustable wrench.
Adjustable wrenches have often been utilized in situations where one was not in possession of fixed size wrenches or ratchets, or where the size of the nut or bolt being worked on deviated from standard metric or English sizes. The traditional adjustable wrench allows the user to adjust the jaw size of the wrench jaws to fit a large variation of nut or bolt sizes, in the event that, as mentioned above, the user is not in possession of fixed sized ratchets or wrenches or the nut or bolt size being worked on is of a non-standard size. Because of the precise sizes that adjustable wrenches can be adjusted to, adjustable wrenches have proven extra worthy when working on delicate, malleable parts, such as nuts or bolts made of aluminum, titanium, etc.
Vise grip pliers have commonly been utilized when a substantial amount of gripping force was needed to securely lock an object between the jaws of the vise grip, such as when one attempts to remove a stubborn or frozen nut or bolt without stripping its head. Also, due to the extreme gripping power of vise grip pliers, they are similarly well suited for squeezing sheet metal flanges and seams together during welding.
Traditionally, adjustable wrenches and vise grip pliers have been manufactured separately, requiring both to be carried along to any job which might call for substantial gripping force in addition to adjustability. This often proved cumbersome and inefficient. In an attempt to combat this problem, several combination vise grip plier-adjustable wrenches have been developed.
Attempted solutions in the art at combining adjustable wrenches and vise grip pliers together into one tool have proven unsuccessful. U.S. Pat. No.5,150,488 to Yuan et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,477,937 to Costello, while both disclosing combination adjustable wrench-vise grip pliers, fail to truly provide a combination tool possessing the unique attributes of both. In using either of these apparatus, one must usually squeeze the vise grip handle in order to utilize the adjustable wrench function. It is often not possible to utilize only the adjustable wrench aspect of the tool without also engaging the vise grip plier handle. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 4,477,937 to Costello, like traditional vise grip pliers, requires the use of two hands in order to adjust the size of the wrench jaws.
While vise grip pliers, similar to adjustable wrenches, provide assistance when encountered with non-standard sized nuts and bolts, vise grip pliers are unable to perform well on delicate parts, as their substantial gripping force often mars and mangles soft surfaces. Likewise, traditional adjustable wrenches are incapable of providing a substantial enough grip to combat a stubborn or frozen nut or bolt.
While these units may be suitable for the particular purpose employed, or for general use, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as disclosed hereafter.